The Writing Cave

Some good stuff this week, folks. Enjoy:

Über-helpful post from Jill Corcoran on formatting your query and manuscript for electronic submissions.

Agent Jennifer Laughran has helpful definitions for query, synopsis, pitch, flap copy and blurb.

The always spectacular Janice Hardy has advice on planting clues in your manuscript.

This week’s Link of Awesome: Ten Reasons Your Novel Won’t Get Published (via Call My Agent). It may sound depressing, but read it for both the advice and the humor…I’ll be watching out for monkeys with sticks.

What was your Link of Awesome this week?

(Now that I think about it, that title makes me want to watch Aladdin…but back to business)

My new WIP involves some serious world building, which isn’t one of my strengths. I focus on things that really interest me (like the agriculture), but tend to avoid areas that don’t (like the politics). So, in case anyone else is looking for help in this area, here are some resources I’ve found:

Author Janice Hardy did a “world building week;” her first post is here. Actually, just read every post she’s ever written, trust me.

Patricia C. Wrede’s Worldbuilder Questions covers all the bases and some I hadn’t thought of.

Becca at The Bookshelf Muse just included a world building post as part of a series on unforgettable settings.

And of course, there’re the Fantasy Novelist’s Exam to check for cliches.

What are your favorite world building tips?

Big news this week for Iowa author and Writing Cave interviewee Dori Hillestad Butler: an Edgar nomination for Best Juvenille mystery! For more about Dori and The Buddy Files, check out her blog, website, and interview.

Congratulations Dori on your deserved recognition!

Happy Wednesday everyone! (It is Wednesday, isn’t it? I’m out of Diet Coke, so I just can’t tell anymore.) Well, assuming it is, on to the Linkfest: 

We start with a nice post from Jody Hedlund on consistency (*sheepish slacker face*).

Fantastic tips on Ingrid Sundberg’s blog to make sure your manuscript is ready to submit.

Marla Taviano guest posts on Agent Rachelle’s blog about choosing to promote other authors instead of being jealous (well, you know, after that initial jolt).

If you’re looking for story structure tips (ooo, pick me!), Laura Pauling has you covered with her three act break down of the movie How to Train Your Dragon and the resulting 15 tips.

And, just in time for the 35^th version of my opening chapter, Roni at *Fiction Groupie* has a litmus test for your opening scene.

This week’s Link of Awesome: check out GalleyCat for instructions on turning your favorite book into a handbag (presumably, you have more than one copy, or keep an eye out for cool covers at book sales). I knew I should’ve paid attention to Mom’s sewing lessons…

When I was at my parents’ house over Christmas, my best friend from elementary school was in town as well, so of course we started reminiscing over Whitey’s ice cream. (You’ve never had Whitey’s? What?! Travel to the Quad Cities. Immediately.) Anyway, all of his stories, I had no memories of, and he had no idea what I was talking about with mine. Apparently I yelled at him for not turning the water off while brushing his teeth; I had no idea. (My sister, six years younger than us, mostly remembered being tormented. Which probably happened.)

But it got me thinking: what memories do each of my characters have? In the middle grade WIP, the three main characters have known each other since kindergarten and there’s lots of history there, but which incident sticks in each mind could be used to say a lot about each one. Is it a stronger memory when they were embarrassed, or when it happened to a friend? Which do they remember most: successes or failures? Are most of the memories things they’d like to change or when things went perfectly?

So that’s one more thing for the revision checklist :) How do you use memories to build character?

Low quantity, super high quality links for this week:

Post #2 in Adventures in Children’s Publishing’s best-of-the-best series.

Great stuff from Janet at Books & Such on creating velocity versus book sales.

This week’s Link of Awesome: Kate Messner’s “What Happened to Your Book Today” has a message for writers everywhere.

Please share any other Links of Awesome in the comments!

It’s that time of year again. Snow is flying, seed catalogs are arriving, and I get the itch. The itch for jigsaw puzzles.

My latest one is from sister-in-law Kate. The picture is my progress through this weekend, when I hit the wall.

You know that wall? When all the edge pieces and distinctive middle designs are done and all that’s left is filling in the in-between? It’s like when you’re writing a draft and you’ve put in all the major plot points, lyrical description bits, and the witty dialogue you thought up in the shower. How do you slog through the rest?

So now I’ll be taking all those solid black wine bottle pieces and brown wood background pieces and trying every piece, one after the other, until I find the perfect fit. And that’s why great writing is so hard and takes so long: each piece has that one location where it has the most impact. And once we get the framework and flashy middle set up, it’s butt-in-chair to find the perfect fit for the rest.

Do you have any tips for filling in the puzzle?

As promised on Monday, a photo of the books given and received by my husband’s side of the family:

• The German Cookbook by Mimi Sheraton
• Top Chef: The Cookbook (yum, husband will be busy)
• Feed by M.T. Anderson (finally, my own copy so I can force others to read it, hah!)
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
• Simon’s Cat by Simon Tofield (a great gift for cat owners)
• Earth by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
• The Moving Feast by Allan Nation
• Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher
• Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels (hopefully the above two will result in my brother-in-law needing taste testers…)
• Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson (I think I’m the only person who hasn’t read Three Cups of Tea yet…putting it on the 2011 to-do list)

Overall, it was an excellent season for book gifting. Anyone have any stories about favorite book gifts received (this year or previously)?

Read one, read all, for the first Linkfest of 2011!

Wonderful and true lessons from young readers, reported by Adventures in Children’s Publishing.

Also via AICP, a worksheet for creating a 1-page synopsis at Let the Words Flow.

And, completing the trifecta, don’t miss AICP’s best-of-the-best roundup of craft articles.

Speaking of craft, the lovely Janice Hardy re-posted advice on getting through that saggy middle (of a draft, not the result of too many Christmas cookies).

Keeping the run of great craft-related posts going, Roni had a wonderful guest post from Laura Diamond on character defense mechanisms.

Who says writers only express themselves through words? Fellow Iowa SCBWI-ian Kellye Carter Crocker is trying to post a picture a day for 2011. I hope some will be of her bookshelves, so I can plan which books to borrow next…

Finally, this week’s Link of Awesome: Where does writing fit on this spectrum? :) (from Indexed)

First off, Happy 2011 everyone! Thanks to every one of you who contributed to The Writing Cave’s 2600 views in 2010 and here’s to an even better 2011.

Coming out of the holidays, all my family members have new books to read and my sister (thanks Munchkin!) suggested I take a picture of our collective bookshelf additions for The Writing Cave. The idea actually permeated my sugar-cookie-stupor and I got it done

Group 1 (my side of family):

• New road atlas and New Concise World Atlas (I wonder if Grandma’s taking me on whatever road trip she’s planning…)
• The Likeness by Tana French
• Two Robin Hood books for my collection (Dad learned a lot about collectible books for this gift, he’s so cute)
• How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack by Chuck Sambuchino (LOVE this one)
• Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Husband is almost done with this monster already)
• The Complete Book of Sushi (I think this means my cousin has to start cooking for me)
• The Art of Eric Carle (If you’re ever in the Amherst, MA area, go visit the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. It’s wonderful!)
• Harry Potter Film Wizardry (Potterheads, have you seen this? It’s AMAZING!)
• Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (you’re welcome, little sister, for getting you hooked)
• Dewey’s Nine Lives by Vicki Myron
• Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs
• The Omnivore’s Dilema by Michael Pollan
• The All American Cheese and Wine Book by Laura Werlin (YUM)
• Aunting by Laura Ellingson
• Birth in Four Cultures by Brigitte Jordan (my cousin’s a social anthropologist, that’s all I know about these last two )

I’ll post my husband’s side of the family book gifts on Friday (hint: more farming and food books, less children’s). Did any of you get great book-related gifts? Or were any you gave well received?